"Marvel's What If?" (Disney+ Animated Series) News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[Frontier]

A minor point, but Dominic Cooper briefly comments on reprising his role as Howard Stark for What If?....

This time he gets to play off Haley Atwell again instead of being voiced by Charlie Schlatter .

 

[RoyalRubble]

Some comments from What If?... show-runner Ashley Bradley.

(Note: They cite Discussing Film as the source of the interview, but the page seems to have been deleted in the meantime).

EDIT: Quoting the article in case it gets deleted, too.

The belief Marvel Studios’ animated What If...? will feature one Marvel Cinematic Universe movie per episode is a “rumor,” showrunner Ashley Bradley has clarified. The first animated series produced by the studio overseen by chief Kevin Feige, What If...? will involve “the majority” of characters from Marvel’s 23-movie MCU, often with multiple characters per episode, but the Disney+ series will not dedicate an episode to every blockbuster produced by the Disney-owned studio.

“That is a rumor. Kevin said that we will be exploring every movie in a new way, but not every episode is about one movie if that makes sense,” Bradley told Discussing Film. “On the reel [shown at D23 Expo], there is this image of a Star-Lord T’Challa because we wanted to see what if the worlds of Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy collided? That was taking two universes, two to three movies, kind of twisting them in new ways.”

Giving each MCU entry its own episode is “not the objective,” Bradley said. “The objective is to hopefully see the majority of characters from all 23 movies. You’ll see multiple characters in an episode.”

That episode cited by Bradley depicts T’Challa, best known as superhero Black Panther and the monarch of the African kingdom of Wakanda, instead following a path where he becomes leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy as cosmic adventurer Star-Lord, the moniker typically belonging to Peter Quill.

“With Star Lord T’Challa obviously, we want to know how T’Challa ended up in other planets? What’s the story there? It’s super exciting to work on because again, it’s seeing these characters and seeing the combination of character interactions,” Bradley said. “Seeing the Avengers hang out together and more recently [Avengers: Endgame] gave us the fun of seeing something like Ant-Man hanging out with the Hulk. What If…? is taking it a step further.”

EDIT #2:
The full Discussing Film interview is up again.

 

[RoryWilliams]

So I'm guessing they aren't doing Homecoming or Far From Home episodes. Heh.

 

[Frontier]

So I'm guessing they aren't doing Homecoming or Far From Home episodes. Heh.

I might be mistaken but I think Tom Holland was shown among the stars they have attached to this.

 

[Fone Bone]

I might be mistaken but I think Tom Holland was shown among the stars they have attached to this.

It's television so they should be safe.

 

[RoryWilliams]

I've checked online but I haven't seen anywhere saying for sure he's involved. Wikipedia has a cited list of everyone confirmed so far.

What If...? (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RoyalRubble]

September 11th:
I thought Holland was shown on the image with the initial actors revealed at SDCC, but I was wrong.

Even if somehow they don't cover his movies (though I kind of doubt it), he still appeared in a few MCU movies. Unless they cheat and give us "What if Spider-Man didn't appear in Civil War?".

October 1st:
Just thought I'd bring this up here as well - new reports say the budgets for the Marvel/Disney+ shows would be between $12 million to $25 million per episode. I believe this is mainly about the live-action shows though, but I imagine the animated stuff might have a bigger than usual budget as well.

 

[Frontier]

Just thought I'd bring this up here as well - new reports say the budgets for the Marvel/Disney+ shows would be between $12 million to $25 million per episode. I believe this is mainly about the live-action shows though, but I imagine the animated stuff might have a bigger than usual budget as well.

Well, they've only got What If (if we're limiting it to the Marvel shows)...what I've seen so far doesn't necessarily look feature film quality, but it does seem pretty good .

Definitely seem to be an improvement from the regular cartoons...

 

[The Overlord]

I wonder what ''What If Scenarios'' will be used in this show?

The beauty of the old What If comics is because they were not bound by 616 continuity they could tell stories with more consequences, characters could die or the world could be going through an apocalyptic event or the Watcher could be doing something silly, depending on the issue.

Though being tied to the MCU could limit the scenarios.

 

[RoyalRubble]

The only limitation that we know of currently is they're only going to cover the first 23 MCU movies. But I think they could come up with some decent and surprising enough alternate scenarios for those stories.

 

[The Overlord]

The only limitation that we know of currently is they're only going to cover the first 23 MCU movies. But I think they could come up with some decent and surprising enough alternate scenarios for those stories.

Sure, but the What If comics were based on scenarios from all across the main 616 universe, everything from personal character stories to major events.

A lot of What If comics dealt with the X-Men, which this series cannot do if its based on the MCU.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

The only limitation that we know of currently is they're only going to cover the first 23 MCU movies. But I think they could come up with some decent and surprising enough alternate scenarios for those stories.

Well, I hope that if it gets picked up for a second season, then I could see the limitation being upheld.

 

[RoyalRubble]

Kind of a minor thing, Michael Douglas apparently didn't know he'll be part of the show. I presume this only means he hasn't recorded yet, as opposed to Hayley Atwell, and the Ant-Man related episodes would come in later (which would make sense if they're going through every MCU movie in order).

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

A lot of What If comics dealt with the X-Men, which this series cannot do if its based on the MCU.

Well, they can, should the show get a second season and that it moves away from being limited to covering the previous MCU films.

 

[RoyalRubble]

More details about an episode featuring a zombie Captain America.

Newsarama has more screenshots.

 

[bigdaddy313]

Its just so nice to see a good looking Marvel Animated show again, beautiful colors, great shading and very smooth animation.

2021 is a long time, luckily we have 2 good looking Marvel show next year (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), even if one of them is not considered Marvel to the general public (Big Hero 6).

Looks expensive I'am thinking 2 to 4 million each episode.

Why do I have this feeling this will concise with Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness?

 

[Rick Jones]

After watching the clips included on Extending the Universe, I'd guess that what was shown so far was probably test animation. I really like the coloring and designs and everything visual but the animation on the clips is motion comic stiff. With that in mind, the two-year wait doesn't feel as long anymore. Nothing from Marvel Studios is past the early stages yet, including this but I'm glad that they did put out something to whet our appetites, unlike how things had been done for so long now.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[RoyalRubble]

November 15th:
Jeff Goldblum talks about another episode and it looks like Robert Downey Jr. is also part of the cast.

"This episode included the Grandmaster and Iron Man," said Goldblum. "So [Robert Downey Jr.] will do a voice in that. And Korg, Taika Waititi, had already recorded his voice for that."

November 22nd:
New report says Robert Downey Jr. isn't involved with this project.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

November 22nd:
New report says Robert Downey Jr. isn't involved with this project.

I do wonder why.

 

[SweetShop209]

Maybe it's scheduling conflicts. I recall how he voiced a character on an episode of Family Guy, who ended being recast in his second appearance. Plus, in the video game based on the first Iron Man movie, he voiced Tony Stark while Stephen Stanton voiced Iron Man.